HUGHES, Langston (1901-1967). The First Book of Negroes. New York: Franklin Watts, 1952.

Square 8vo. Illustrations throughout by Ursula Koering. Original green cloth, pictorial endleaves (front flyleaf with loss to lower and foremargin affecting inscription); rear panel and flap of publisher's dust jacket only (chipping and tears). Provenance: Noël Sullivan (presentation inscription); by descent to present owner.

FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY HUGHES TO SULLIVAN: “For Noel – Affectionately, Langston. October 10, 1952, New York.” With book review laid in.

By the time Franklin and Watts published The First Book of Negroes, Hughes faced tremendous criticism for his earlier support of Communism. “In a statement requested by Franklin and Helen Watts…he denied…any past or present membership in the Communist Party, however, he also conceded that his goal as a writer was to effect social change in a free, harmonious America…. Eventually, a copy [of The First Book of Negroes] went to Noël Sullivan at Hollow Hills Farm in California, who personified perhaps better than any of Langston’s close friends the radical deterioration in the national attitude to the Soviet Union. ‘That we have merited the scourge and punishment that they represent,’ Sullivan wrote Langston, ‘I have little or no doubt, nor do I question that they, as the uncompromising allies of satanic falsehood and destruction, have evolved an almost fool-proof strategy for our doom” (Rampersad, Life, Vol. II, p.191).


Fine African Americana from the Collections of Noël Sullivan & William P. and Alice D. Mahoney